Great Falls Citizens Association (GFCA) elections were held June 11 for the term commencing July 1. The new president, Eric Knudsen, an IT executive and consultant and a Great Falls resident since 1980, has served on the board for eight years, including two as vice-president and five as an active successful Transportation Committee co-chair. The next vice-president, Bill Canis, a motor vehicle industry analyst for the Library of Congress, is co-chair of GFCA Environment, Parks, and Trails Committee and organized the GF Heritage Tree Census, which identified over 150 different trees. David Kondner and Debbie Copito were re-elected treasurer and secretary. Jackie Taylor will replace Ralph Apton as the non-elected immediate past president.
The two new regular two-year executive board directors are Joan Barclay and Alane Dashner. Joan, a Wharton MBA, is a financial and program strategy consultant to major non-profit international banks and global health care organizations. Alane received her B.A. in linguistics, an M.S.N in nursing administration, and currently is a marketing director. Re-elected were Ruth Carver, Wayne Foley, Bill Harvey and Amy Stephan. Board members continuing to serve the second-year of their two-year term are Jack Clark, Anne Deatherage, Pam Grosvenor, Scott Knight and Keyvan Moussavi.
The board is expanding from 17 to 21 members via the inclusion of four new board directors specifically representing community homeowner associations. Each primary director will have an alternate. Those elected directors are: Philip Carruthers, Amber Woods HOA, who has a Maryland B.S. in business and is an advanced military and intelligence IT specialist; Effie Hoffman, Ridings of GF HOA, who has a Canadian degree in political science, and is the Northern VA-DC Chapter Head of ConKerr Cancer, a non-profit charity; Philip Pifer, Lake Windermere Community Assn., has a Harvard MBA and works as a venture capitalist and strategy consultant; and, Jennifer Semko, Deerfield Pond HOA, who has a Georgetown B.S.F.S. and a magna cum laude Tulane J.D., and is a litigation, internal investigations, and compliance attorney with Baker and McKenzie. Alternates elected to represent their HOA if the primary director is unavailable are Ed Phillips, Laura Santini and Joan Pifer.
On June 18, the GFCA Executive Board will consider nominations for the remaining one-year of the board seat vacancy resulting from the Bill Canis election to V.P. and the one unfilled alternate representative.